Mitigating the Risks of Disk-to-Disk Backup Using Multi-Directional Replication

There are a ton of new features in the 8.0 release of Asigra Televaulting 8.0 - so many so that here at DCIG, we are trying to digest all of the new features in bite-size portions. The one I want to focus on in this entry is Televaulting's new replication functionality. Replication is a key function in any facet of the storage landscape and, with Asigra adding this feature into its latest release of Televaulting, it becomes an even more robust player in the enterprise space.

Let's assume a customer or service provider decides to deploy a full disk-to-disk backup solution for their enterprise. In these situations, it becomes important that the backup and restoration process is fast and error free. However with all data now stored to disk, it's imperative that if one location becomes disabled for some reason, an alternate location(s) can simply and quickly take over the backup and recovery reigns.

Most enterprise shops that have or will have this solution deployed will need to service multiple locations in order to meet the backup and recovery SLA's that they have agreed upon with their customer base. In a typical scenario customers will deploy the backup and recovery processes as close as they can to the end users to ensure the most effective use of the local and remote bandwidth capabilities. Secondary and tertiary sites are then generally configured based upon their geographic proximity and/or the availability of network connections to the primary site.

While Televaulting has delivered global deduplication for awhile, enterprise companies need more than just data reduction and capacity savings, they need assurances of data availability and resiliency. Using Televaulting 8.0's new Multi-Directional replication feature, either location can hum along as a source or target location while, in the background and transparent to the customer and/or end-user, all the backup & recovery data across the various locations stays in-sync.

Multi-Directional replication ensures that when there is a failure of one or more locations for whatever reason your clients can continue to restore and backup their data while you can continue to meet your agreed upon SLAs. Then, once the failed location returns to service, Televaulting automatically transitions management control and any new data back to the original location in such a manner that is transparent to the customers and/or end users that you support.

The addition of Multi-Directional replication into Televaulting 8.0 should contribute to making Asigra's disk-to-disk backup and keeping all backup data on disk a more palatable option to enterprise customers. Enterprise customers are looking for ways to break free from the chains of traditional backup and recovery environment but they also recognize that they need a product that meets their high standards of availability, recoverability and resiliency. The inclusion of Multi-Directional replication as a core feature in Asigra Televaulting should help to take enterprises closer towards their ideal of keeping all data readily accessible and easily manageable.